Be aware of agencies that say they will get your baby or child into acting. Back in Janaury of this year, we went to Flashcast Kids for an audition for our then 7 month old daughter. They have all the parents sit in a room and a lady selects the children she wants to stay. They then asked us to leave a picture of the baby and someone would be reviewing the file and we were to call back later that afternoon to find out if they wanted to use her.
When I called back, I was told that my husband and me had to go back to the office to meet with the President of the company. When we got there we waited to meet with him. He sat us down and explained that they wanted to "advertise" our daughter and needed money from us to do so. They wanted $825 for a two year contract.
We wanted to think about it and were told it was that night only and no cooling off period. We discussed it in the office and after being told that our baby is very cute and that she will most likely get some work, we paid the money. We were told to get a work permit for her, which I did the next business day and faxed it to them.
We had to give them a lot of pictures of her and they were to forward them to different companies. We were also told that once a month we had to turn in 20 pictures of her along with a $20 processing fee. They will only give us status once a month and only the name of the company, not the location, what it was for, nothing. When I asked them to give the name of the companies to me in writing, they will not respond to me.
I then talked to a casting director and was told that any company that asks for money up front is probably a scam. If somebody really wants to use our daughter, they will sign her up, get her work and then collect commission from her pay, that's it. We have yet to receive a call for our daughter to go on any auditions and were told that we can not get a refund or take the company to small claims. All of our complaints have to go through the Better Business Bureau arbitration department.
I don't want other parents to fall for this. Please be very careful.
Kim
Van Nuys, CA
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